Eric G. Ekdale, Ph.D.

Dr. Eric G. Ekdale
Lecturer & Research Associate
Department of Biology
San Diego State University
Curatorial Assistant
Departments of Paleontology and
Paleoservices
San Diego Natural History Museum
Research Associate
Department of Paleontology
San Diego Natural History Museum
About Me:
I am a comparative anatomist with interests in the evolution and phylogenetic history of mammals. My present research centers on the morphological foundations of the senses of hearing and balance throughout placental mammal clades, and in particular baleen whales.
After receiving my undergraduate degree in biology at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, I studied evolutionary biology at San Diego State University for my Masters degree and paleobiology at The University of Texas at Austin for my Ph.D. My dissertation was a broad scale study investigating both interspecific and intraspecific variation within the middle and inner ear regions of extinct proboscideans (mammoths and mastodons) from central Texas, a growth series of the gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica), extinct mammals from the Cretaceous of Asia, and a high-level anatomical comparison of the inner ear cavities across Placentalia as a whole.
I continued evolutionary research on the anatomy and systematics of extinct and extant whales as a post-doc at the San Diego Natural History Museum. In addition, I have engaged in various scholarly and academic activities at the Natural History Museum, San Diego State University, and several other schools in the San Diego area.
ACADEMIC HISTORY
Ph.D. – Geosciences, emphasis in Vertebrate
Paleobiology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. 2009.
M.S. – Biology, emphasis in Systematic,
Evolutionary and Organismal Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA. 2002.
B.A. – Biology and Scandinavian Studies,
Augustana College, Rock Island, IL. 1999.

Dissection of the ear region of a gray whale neonate (Eschrichtius robustus) at San Diego State University.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Department of Biology
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182
NEWS & UPDATES
May 24, 2021 – New Publication! Ekdale, E. G. and T. A. Deméré. 2021. Neurovascular evidence for a co-occurrence of teeth and baleen in an Oligocene mysticete and the transition to filter feeding in baleen whales. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.